Ryanne Corey - Lady With A Past

Connor whispered, as if confiding a great secret. “Not just your ordinary picnic either…it’s a chocolate picnic.”

“I’ve never had one of those before,” Maxie gasped. She was becoming weak all over from the achingly pleasurable sensation of his breath stirring in her ear.

“I’m taking you away from your ranch, your garden and your cows,” Connor told her, rubbing his nose lightly against the baby-soft skin of her neck. “You haven’t lived until you’ve had a chocolate picnic.”

“Have you?”

“Lived?”

“Had a chocolate picnic?”

“No.” He kissed her forehead lightly, then forced himself to step back from her. Her incredible eyes never lost their spellbinding appeal. “I guess that means I’ve never lived before today, either.”

Dear Reader,

As we celebrate Silhouette’s 20 thanniversary year as a romance publisher, we invite you to welcome in the fall season with our latest six powerful, passionate, provocative love stories from Silhouette Desire!

In September’s MAN OF THE MONTH, fabulous Peggy Moreland offers a Slow Waltz Across Texas. In order to win his wife back, a rugged Texas cowboy must learn to let love into his heart. Popular author Jennifer Greene delivers a special treat for you with Rock Solid, which is part of the highly sensual Desire promotion, BODY & SOUL.

Maureen Child’s exciting miniseries, BACHELOR BATTALION, continues with The Next Santini Bride, a responsible single mom who cuts loose with a handsome Marine. The next installment of the provocative Desire miniseries FORTUNE’S CHILDREN: THE GROOMS is Mail-Order Cinderella by Kathryn Jensen, in which a plain-Jane librarian seeks a husband through a matchmaking service and winds up with a Fortune! Ryanne Corey returns to Desire with a Lady with a Past, whose true love woos her with a chocolate picnic. And a nurse loses her virginity to a doctor in a night of passion, only to find out the next day that her lover is her new boss, in Doctor for Keeps by Kristi Gold.

Be sure to indulge yourself this autumn by reading all six of these tantalizing titles from Silhouette Desire!

Enjoy!

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

www.millsandboon.co.uk

For the star that watched over me

and the man who waited.

An author of bestselling romance novels, Ryanne Corey lives in Idaho in the shadow of the Teton Mountains, “the best place in the world to write and write and write.” She has written over twenty novels and is recognized for the true-to-life humor and sensuality of her characters. She has received several awards over the last few years, including Romantic Times Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award and award for Best Series Novel. She has long believed that life is too serious to be taken too seriously. In her writing she enjoys creating appealing and amusing characters that take their first breath on page one, endearing themselves to the readers long after the book is finished. “For me,” Ryanne says, “bringing a smile to someone’s face is what life is all about.”

Nothing is more satisfying to her than hearing from readers who share her enjoyment of “love and laughter.” You can write to her at P.O. Box 328, Tetonia, ID 83452. Please include a SASE if a reply is desired.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Epilogue

Connor Garrett was the first to admit he enthusiastically spoiled himself. He liked his little creature comforts, enjoyed his no-limit credit cards, sent all his clothes, including his undershorts, out to be cleaned and had magnificent houses on both coasts. He couldn’t make peace with his microwave, but that hardly mattered since his housekeepers—one capable gray-haired lady per house—handled the cooking on the few occasions he actually ate in. In fact, with the exception of the mysterious microwave oven, he couldn’t think of a time in recent memory when he’d come up against anything that had disrupted his cheerful existence.

Until now.

First of all, his six-foot-plus frame was folded into a very irritating rental car. He was too tall for the sporty little number that had looked so appealing at the Jackson Hole airport. This necessitated him driving with the sunroof open, which would have solved the problem nicely…if it hadn’t started to rain. His dark, golden-brown hair was well on its way from damp to drenched.

He’d also discovered the terrible habit Wyoming’s wild animals had of using the highways as their own private crosswalks. Since leaving the airport he’d seen elk, moose and a terrifying number of skunks strolling down the center line. This was not the way things were done in Los Angeles, and the only wild animals that frequented New York streets were taxi drivers.

Still, Connor’s black mood had less to do with the driving conditions than it did with a certain woman the world knew only as Glitter Baby. Connor was looking for her and had been for the past ten days. She didn’t want to be found. So far, she was winning.

He glanced down at the rain-spotted photograph on the seat beside him. It was a haunting picture, a full-length shot of a reed-thin woman with heavily shadowed violet eyes and cascades of glorious, golden-blond hair. Her skin was pale, almost luminescent; it was hard to tell where she ended and her sheer ivory dress began. Her wide lips shimmered wetly with cinnamon gloss, sulky and shaped for sin. For a time, hers had been the most famous face in America.

“Where the hell did you disappear to, lady?” Connor muttered. “How could someone with a face like yours disappear without a trace?”

He turned his attention back to the road just in time to avoid flattening yet another slow-moving skunk. Connor was tired of traveling constantly. He was tired of staying in motels with names like Fairly Reliable Bob’s. He particularly disliked hopping on tiny little tinfoil airplanes to fly over great big mountains. He had a sinking feeling he was on a wild-goose chase, but he refused to give up. That would be admitting defeat, and in this particular circumstance, Connor couldn’t afford to fail.

The mobile phone in his jacket pocket rang, and he fished it out, keeping a wary eye on the road. Only one person had this particular number, his assistant Morris Gold. “Speak to me, Morris. Any luck in Texas? I know it’s a big place…no, I don’t want to interview Alan Greenspan for the show. Who wants to hear about interest rates for sixty minutes? I told you before, this interview is for sweeps week and it has to be something special. No one has been able to find this lady for two years. It’ll be a real coup if Public Eye is the first.” There was a short silence, broken only by the sound of raindrops hitting the leather upholstery. “No, I’m not trying to be difficult. I have a damn good reason for going to all this trouble, but you don’t need to know it. What do you mean, you’re starting to dream about her? No, you can’t fall in love with a picture. I’m an expert at not falling in love, Morris—I know these things. You’re losing your focus. Call me if anything turns up, all right?”

Connor tossed the phone down on the seat with a weary sigh. He had worked as a highly successful television journalist for over six years now, but had never come up against a challenge quite like this. Glitter Baby had dominated the fickle world of high fashion for nearly eight years. Even at the age of fourteen, when she had first begun modeling, she had radiated a powerful combination of innocence and sexuality that left women envious and men gasping for air. When she had abruptly retired two years ago at the venerable age of twenty-two, there had been no announcement of future plans. Even with Connor’s research staff scrambling in all directions, there was scant information available on who the woman really was, why she had vanished or where she might have gone. She had been born Frances Calhoon in Redfern, Wyoming, and her father had farmed there until his death six years earlier. Her mother had moved away since, although none of their former neighbors in Redfern knew where. End of story. Connor had an infallible sense of what the public hungered for, and the true story behind the disappearing supermodel had the makings of a dynamite show…not to mention the fact he had a promise to keep.